Jindabyne Wed 26^th to Sun 30^th January, 2011

Paul Southwell	Honda CBR1000	Phillip Hotschilt	Suzuki GSX1300
Misho Zrakic	Honda CBR1000	Ben Fuller	Suzuki GSXR1000
Tim Emons	Honda CBR1000	Rob Jones	Suzuki GSXR1000
Damir Djikic	Honda CBR1000	Bill Simpson	Suzuki GSXR1000
John Rousseaux (rear)	Honda CBR1000	Rob Langer	BMW R1150 GS
Ron Johnston	Honda CBF1000	Rod Merrett	BMW HP2
Ben Warden (leader)	Honda CBR954	Julie Johnston	car
Pina Garasi	Honda CBR600	Barb Peters	car
Cliff Peters	Kawasaki ZX10		17 people, 15 bikes

Day 1: Berwick (123km via Hill End) Tyers 86 Briagolong 95 Bruthen 65 Orbost 173 (8.5 +5 km of dirt) Bombala 108 Jindabyne.

Day 2: Jindabyne 108 Adaminaby 119 Tumbarumba 53 Cabramurra 70 Khancoban 115 Jindabyne

Day 3: Jindabyne 108 Bombala 109 Eden 92 Bombala 108 Jindabyne 40 Charlotte Pass 40 Jindabyne

Day 4: Jindabyne, Lake Eucumbene 118 Cooma 48 Numeralla 48 Cooma 67 Adaminaby 57 Cabramurra 65 Khancoban 115 Jindabyne

Day 5: Jindabyne 108 Bombala 173 Orbost 99 Bruthen via Buchan 95 Briagolong 86 Tyers 75 Longwarry North

It has been a week back in the reality of work, producing a magazine, assisting Peter Feistl with the 2010 DVD production, and managing the new roof challenges – power cable pulling off the facia, all storm water pipes blocked and need replacing. Only now, 6 days later, Saturday and no place to be, do I have time to put pen to paper – before I forget even more.

In a nutshell, the ride was spectacularly successful, in no small part due to those who participated. It’s no good having fantastic accommodation, all you can eat meals, mostly near perfect weather, marvellous scenery, endless twisty roads and not a cop in sight for thousands and thousands of kilometres, if no one comes. And it was suggested that was a possibility given the Australia Day weekend is sandwiched in between Christmas and Tassy. But past experience and records suggested otherwise, and so indeed 17 people attended with another three reluctantly dropping out, the last one being John Willis, whose radiator failed the previous Sunday after the ride. A warranty job as it was a manufacturing fault. But of course that will take weeks to negotiate and remedy.

Barb and Cliff Peters, stalwarts of these long weekends away, once again assisted with the carrying of clothes bags and spare tyres! Ron and Julie Johnston were co-opted into this task as well. This allowed the riders to travel as lightly as possible, and with so many corners requiring frequent direction changes, and sometimes hard braking, the less weight the better. Greatly appreciated by all. The only drawback was not having any wet weather protection on the first morning where very light mist persisted until lunchtime making some of us quite cold. My leather jacket slowly absorbed the moisture getting heavier and heavier. But the afternoon fined up and all was well with the world.

Speaking of tyres, Barb brought all the tyre changing equipment – bike stands, bead breaker, tyre irons, rim protectors, air compressor, static balance stand, wheel weights, double sided tape and all the other tools and peripherals such as valve removers. It is quite an operation but Cliff is well practiced and makes it look easy. He “only” replaced three tyres, a front for me and rears for himself and Tim Emons. But Tim had a new front ready to go if required and Paul brought a spare front for whoever needed it, should the occasion arise. It is these sorts of behaviours which make our Club so strong and a joy to be part of.

While changing tyres I noticed one front pad was through the wear marker and had only about 0.5 mm to go. The rest had 2 mm. Given the standard ones only start with 4 mm and let’s say they do 20,000 km, then 2 mm is 10,000 km! But less than 0.5 mm with three days to go was not sustainable. Luckily I was able to track down a set in Fyshwick using Tim’s internet connected phone and Cliff and Barb were able to pick them up on a day trip in the car to Canberra to visit the War Memorial. So I was able to ride down to Eden, have a great day and come back to a sparkly new set of pads. Interestingly, the aftermarket pads were close to 7 mm thick requiring the pistons to be fully compressed to make enough space to fit them. Fluid had to be removed from the master cylinder, access blocked by the fairing screen, necessitating loosening of the master cylinder mount at the handlebar. All good entertainment for the troops late in the warm evening.

It was a different dynamic this year with half or so of the group on their first such big weekend away. People like Phill Hotschilt, Bill Simpson, Rod Merrett, Damir Djikic, Tim Emons, Ben Fuller and Rob Jones had never seen Cliff tyre changing on the fly, let alone experienced most of the roads before. It was very educational and entertaining.

Ben Fuller and Rob Jones made their own way to Jindabyne, arriving and leaving a day earlier. In the five days we were only all together for two days. One of those evenings we spent at Moguls, the on-site cafeteria. On the second night – Friday, Ben and Rob joined us for a BBQ. Rob has many stories, all of which are unprintable, but hugely funny. Ben Fuller works as the straight man, Rob the clown. Even though I was trying to watch the women’s tennis semi-final of the Australian Open, a brilliant three setter, I knew I was missing out on many laughs and tall stories, judging by the squeals of delight and guffaws of laughter.

After our trip to Eden, a lazy 400 km day, there was sufficient enthusiasm and energy for a visit to Charlotte Pass, our only real opportunity in a packed agenda. Cliff and Ron weren’t back from Canberra, Rob and Ben Fuller and Paul succumbed to the evil temptation of drink leaving John Rousseaux, Rod Merrett, Misho and Pina (on the one bike), Tim Emons, Bill Simpson, Phill Hotschilt, Damir Djikic and myself to lead the charge. Still only $6.00 to get in, the National Parks sticker good for 24 hours.

The first time you ever ride to Charlotte Pass is amazing. And sure enough, the first timers were goggle eyed and blathering crazily, awash with superlatives, deliriously happy. Not only was the road in brilliant condition except for some snow damage for a few hundred metres right near the summit, the weather was beautifully warm with no wind and clear skies; a rare combination. Last time back in November the snow was a metre deep! A trip to the lookout to view Kosciuszko was enjoyed by all. As usual, the trip back to Jindabyne “seemed much shorter” the first timers noted.

A new road! Having an extra day allowed a day of exploring and revisiting some of the lesser known sites. Typically, on a four day weekend we only have time for a loop out east to Eden (Day 3) and a loop north around the Alpine Way (Day 2). Days 1 and 4 are spent transiting between Melbourne and Jindabyne. This time Day 4 was spent visiting Eucumbene Dam and then working our way across to Cooma for lunch (too big, too many people, too humid, no parking, too many traffic lights, couldn’t wait to get out of the there) and then further east to Numeralla. I had seen an exciting looking road on the map that went nowhere (ie turned to dirt) forking at the end. The road was pleasant enough but the north most fork offered 9 km of twisty, hilly, technically challenging corners making the excursion well worth the effort. It was relatively smooth and wide as well.

The day also allowed us to revisit some of our favourite roads, the “Yellow Road” between Adaminaby and Kiandra. Damir was seriously besotted by this road, the yellow line markings indelible etched in his memory. We completed the Cabramurra, Khancoban, Alpine Way loop again, this time stopping at Cabramurra. It made for a 600 km plus day, but no complaints, only smiles.

For the record, there is only 1 km of dirt left on the Bombala to Dalgety shortcut, soon to be remedied. And the Bonang Highway is down to 8.7 km of tight and twisty dirt and another 5 km of higher speed, more open road works, likely to be surfaced soon. This road is far more difficult in the southerly direction – Day 5, heading home. The new guys thought there was at least 30 km of dirt! Trying to ride dirt roads with lots of steep downhill left hand corners with plenty of gravel is definitely hard work. I always regroup at the other end, for a rest both mentally and physically, and to make sure everyone gets through okay because some are 15 minutes behind by this stage. It’s only another 75 km of sensational, tight to medium speed twisties to Orbost, but they are unrelenting! The 45 km sign comes up and you are already knackered. I had a brilliant time as the bunny for Cliff and Misho to chase all the way to Orbost where the temperature had soared to the high thirties and the humidity was equally oppressive.

I bumped into Sky, the daughter of Megan, the driver of the car Rob Langer had tangled with on the Bonang Highway on Day 1. She thought the group may have been us, but wasn’t sure until she saw “the tall cute one”. Having not narrowed the field, as she is relatively short, I pressed for more info. Alas, “The one with long hair.” That would be Damir, then. Sky gave me an update, told me Mum agists horses at Bonang and works as a masseuse in Bairnsdale, and they live just around the corner in Orbost. So Rob’s text of receiving a massage that night was all true.

The ride split into the mad as cut snakes and the complete loonies. The loonies went to Bruthen via Buchan while the cut snakes took the highway to Bruthen to snooze under the trees and wait for the rest of us. I can report that the road out of Orbost to Buchan is very tricky to find with at least 6 turns – only one overshoot, and yes, it is still as bumpy as ever at the start. Just another 58 km of challenging twisties along a fairly average road with no room for error. The time before last (12 years ago?) I spent dodging Dave Ward crashing and a girlfriend who had also crashed, both riders and bikes going down in front of me, bikes and bodies everywhere. Gravel on a blind corner. Dave was on a hired Kawasaki ZX9. Oops!

Over 3,000 km door to door and I see Bill was up to 3200 km. Considering the extremely poor weather either side of this Jindabyne Trip, floods galore all across Victoria, NSW and Queensland thanks to Category 5 cyclone Yasi, I’ll pinch John Rousseaux’s expression and say “we were blessed.”

I expect Tassy to be more of the same: great riding, people and weather.

Ben Warden